Sunday, October 2, 2022

Hey Mandela. You want this job? You want change to happen? Fight for it.

You've probably seen this ad a few times on TV or youTube in recent weeks.

I find myself rolling my eyes at this ad, and Cap Times Opinion editor Steve Elbow said his "head nearly exploded" when it came on. Elbow is seeing the Mandela Barnes campaign using a dumb strategy that hurt his chances (and the chances for other Dems) in September.
We're 39 days from the election, and Barnes is still introducing us to his family and doing everything he can to reassure white voters that he isn't a dangerous Black man.

Meanwhile Ron Johnson and his allies are running a series of blistering and blatantly racist ads that depict Barnes as someone who, among other things, puts murders and rapists on the street. And they're working.

We should have learned this by now: If you're a Democrat running for office, don't let Republicans define you. Especially if that Republican is Ron Johnson, who won his Senate seat by beating one of the most competent, dedicated and intelligent senators on Capitol Hill — to the everlasting shame of Wisconsin. And he did it twice, ending Russ Feingold's political career.
I completely agree with this. The positive, introductory stuff should have used to insulate Barnes from the racist garbage that we all knew would be coming from Ron Johnson and other GOPs after the primary, because RoJo can't win this race on his horrible record and out-of-touch positions. It doesn't do anything now. But that phase of messaging should have ended around Labor Day.

If low-info voters haven't cemented a positive image of Barnes by early September, there is little in the last 8 weeks of campaigning that will do that. What can be done is to make those voters say "HELL NO" when it comes to giving Ron Johnson a third term, and Elbow doesn't understand why the Barnes campaign isn't making this election a referendum on the 12-year incumbent who can't stop saying and doing stupid/crooked things.

...[Barnes] just takes it on the chin and goes on the defensive.

Isn't it time for Barnes to take the fight to Johnson? With all the idiotic, self-serving and cruel things Johnson's said and done, Barnes should have plenty to work with.
For example, here's a layup message that I don't see the Barnes folks blasting out, where Ron Johnson was one of 25 GOP Senators that voted against the continuing resolution to avoid funding the government past Friday.

Does the Barnes campaign understand that media won't amplify a message you want if you don't run ads on it, or hammer it in every message and appearance? They need to, and NOW. Also, why isn't Mandela running as a vessel of change and improvement? Among general voters, Barnes needs to stop putting his face and personality in the center of his campaign.

PoliSci professor and strategist Rachel Bitecofer's central thesis has been that most elections in this era are decided by "negative partisanship", where voters make their decision based on the outcome they cannot accept. Republicans understand this concept, especially with a candidate as unliked and unpopular as Johnson, so they attack, lie and spin about Dem candidates to make them unacceptable. With that in mind, Barnes' ads and messages should emphasize that the Senate cannot get better as long as Ron Johnson is in it. Make voters understand that Ron Johnson will waste time on stupid garbage like Hunter Biden's laptop (the "Benghazi!" of the early 2020s for Republicans), and won't do anything to stop gun violence or to end the slanted economy that pays off big for Ron Johnson's donors, at the expense of everyone else.

What's odd is that Barnes seems to understand this concept, which explains this recent social media ad with fellow Lieutenant Governor/Senate candidate John Fetterman of Pennsylania.

Why not have this idea be central to the last month of the campaign? (along with the point that Ron Johnson is a crooked, clueless POS who doesn't give a f**k about you or 99% of other Wisconsinites). "If you elect me, I'll make the Senate work where 50 votes gets things done, we'll stop gerrymandering and take money out of politics, and we will reign in an out-of-control Supreme Court and restore Roe v. Wade as law of the land."

Stop running a primary campaign geared toward high-info voters who made up their minds long ago. Run the campaign that'll make voters demand change and progress, and make them know the only way that happens is by booting out Russian Ron Johnson and the GOP scum that are holding us back in both Wisconsin, and in America.

And if that isn't enough for the Barnes folks to understand, then he needs to know that if he fails to remove Ron Johnson and stop the embarrassment so many of us feel from having that lowlife "represent" Wisconsin in the Senate, then Mandela Barnes is done as a statewide candidate. He and the rest of his campaign will not be forgiven if they blow this.

So my message to Team Mandela is - don't blow it. Fight like your career is on the line, and that you will not allow yourselves to lose in November, or be able to endure the aftermath. Because many of us will not be invested in the future of Wisconsin if things go the wrong way.
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4 comments:

  1. AnonymousOctober 3, 2022 at 11:10 PM

    You think "YOU'RE angry?? Imagine what Sarah Godlewski, Tom Nelson or Alex Lasry are feeling right now as they watch Ron Johnson & his allies absolutely DESTROY airhead Mandela Barnes !!! Once again, rank & file Democrats can thank our super smart Party BOSSES for forcing three SUPERIOR candidates out of the race to make way for intellectual lightweight Barnes. If I see this ad or hear Barnes say, "my mom was a teacher and my dad worked 3rd shift one more time, I'm going to puke. Thank the Democrat Party BOSSES for 6 more years of Ron Johnson.

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  2. AnonymousOctober 4, 2022 at 6:25 AM

    First of all, I’d disagree that Barnes is a lightweight. That was my initial fear about him, but I’ve seen him in debates and off-the-cuff, and he’s got legit policy chops.

    Which is what makes the campaign’s September strategy all the dumber. They decided to neuter Mandela (to be fair, Mandela went along with it) instead of going hard after Johnson and showing how Mandela would change the game in the Senate.

    This race is still very winnable, and don’t fall into the spiral of negative that Republicans and corporate media want you to fall into. But after Nov 8, we deserve to know who made the call to clear the field for Mandela instead of having him earn a statewide victory in August that would have better insulated him against what we all knew was coming in September.

    Jake

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    Replies
    1. AnonymousOctober 4, 2022 at 8:39 AM

      With their repeated insulting of Barnes’ intelligence and the use of the patronizing term “Democrat Party,” I suspect Anonymous at 11:10 PM is a GOP troll. But I totally agree with your article and have been flabbergasted by Barnes’ strategy. Just this morning, though, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Barnes is going on the offensive with abortion. That’s a good start. Especially since I don’t believe the polls that say voters’ number one concern is inflation and abortion is supposedly way down the list. Keep going, Mandela—better late than never.

      Minnesconsin Tom

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  3. WashCoRepubOctober 4, 2022 at 7:06 PM

    Hey, I'M the GOP troll around these parts! But yes, Jessie Barnes comes across as... well, charitably, not too bright. Godlewski or Lasry would definitely have been better choices. Johnson's ad team is absolutely killing it... They happily surprised me!

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